MakerBot Digitizer Will Clone All Your Stuff Using a Turntable and Lasers

Photo credit: Spencer Higgins/MakerBot

There are a few major obstacles in the way of 3-D printing’s imminent mainstream success: affordability, easy-to-use hardware, and easy-to-design objects. The MakerBot Digitizer isn’t exactly cheap — it costs $1,400 by itself and $1,550 with a year-long service plan — but it does address those latter two ease-of-use issues with promise.

The Digitizer is about the size of a portable 45 rpm record player — with a laser-shooting accessory attached to the back. MakerBot head honcho Bre Pettis debuted a prototype of the Digitizer at his SXSW keynote address back in March, and now the device is almost ready for sale. The MakerBot Digitizer starts shipping in October.

Here’s how it works. You start with a relatively small object — you’re limited to a maximum weight of 6.6 pounds, and the object has to be less than 8 inches wide and 8 inches tall. Put it on the Digitizer’s turntable, and the device scans it with two “eye-safe” lasers as the turntable spins. After the object has been fully scanned, the Digitizer outputs a 3-D design file. The entire scanning process takes about 12 minutes, according to the MakerBot website — there are 800 individual steps within a full 360-degree rotation.

The Digitizer isn’t a 3-D printer in and of itself, but MakerBot says this 3-D desktop scanner will cooperate with printers outside the MakerBot universe. After it scans an object, it outputs either an .STL file that can be used with other 3-D printers or a .THING file that works with MakerBot’s Replicator 2 ($2,200) or Replicator 2X ($2,800) printers. The scanner also comes bundled with MakerWare for Digitizer software, which runs on Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Ubuntu Linux.

I’m waiting for the plugin that lets DJs create mutated 3-D monstrosities by scratching the turntable back and forth during a scan. Reeeeeemix!